But I have to say, she has a terrible way of entering that jump. It's so distracting.

It does NOT bother me at all. Each skater has a different technique to get a right timing to enter jumps. Everyone is somehow slightly different. Rachale has her own technique and it works for her very well. It is not even close to what you call mule-kick.
I just love her. Thank you Rachael for the great season. I enjoyed it so much!!

Each skater might have his or her own technique, but some are more correct than others. Caroline's technique, for example, might work for her, but it's hardly orthodox. It might not bother you, but it doesn't mean it's right

I wouldn't call it a mule kick, but she does raise her leg pretty high. It's not pretty. Her technique for both the lutz and flip is odd.

I am not sure if it is a mule kick, but like Caroline she seems to swing back and forth on her edge, a trait that has gotten worse in the last year. This causes a "e" call on her lutz at worlds when actually when she took off she was on the outside edge as seen in slo-mo replay. But she changed edge so much it did not look clean.

I believe that high kicking is an unintentional attempt by the body to store kenetic energy to achieve a rotation. To jump without the kick requires more strength. I have read that Caroline is attempting to increase her strength. She actually looked somewhat muscular in that People Magazine ad.

I believe that high kicking is an unintentional attempt by the body to store kenetic energy to achieve a rotation. To jump without the kick requires more strength. I have read that Caroline is attempting to increase her strength. She actually looked somewhat muscular in that People Magazine ad.

Caroline is muscular, but she doesn't have much upper body strength which I think helps with rotation. Compared to someone like Mirai or Yuna, she has very narrow shoulders even though they are all about the same height and weight. Looking at them, Rachael and Caroline likely have lower centers of gravity than a lot of the other girls because they have small shoulders and bigger hips and that's goign to prevent them from getting as much height on their jumps than someone with a higher center of gravity, but on the other hand, because they don't jump as high they are less likely to fall.

Caroline is muscular, but she doesn't have much upper body strength which I think helps with rotation. Compared to someone like Mirai or Yuna, she has very narrow shoulders even though they are all about the same height and weight.

Actually, if you compare videos and pictures from the last 2 seasons, Caroline's shoulders seem to have gotten broader.

Actually, if you compare videos and pictures from the last 2 seasons, Caroline's shoulders seem to have gotten broader.

Yes, but not compared to her legs and hips. She used to be very short and straight up and down, but now she doesn't have a little kid body anymore. She does not appear to be as thin as skaters like Mao, Yuna, Akiko, it looks like she is a bit more solid and where she has such bad technique she can't use her strength to power through her jumps.

I ve seen both Caroline and Flatt live and Flatt's kick was more annoying to me. It is the way she takes off also. That or I just liked Caroline's everything else much more so i didnt mind. Now I ve seen almost all top Usa ladies live, Flatt was the one I couldnt really appreciate at all.